What? You didn't like my attitude comment?






WM: Many reports are of "black panthers". Is there really a black panther?
DR. SHROPSHIRE: To our knowledge, no black Florida panther has ever been confirmed in North America, either in the wild or in captivity. As stated above, the vast majority of panthers are light brown in color. The jaguar, a close relative of the panther which is found in Mexico and Central America, does have a black phase, as does the leopard which is found in Asia and Africa. The black panther is a myth, however, largely perpetuated by novelists, the movies and by those who confuse the jaguar or leopard with the panther.

There are no authenticated cases of truly melanistic cougars (pumas). Melanistic cougars have never been photographed or shot in the wild and none have ever been bred. There is wide consensus among breeders and biologists that the animal does not exist.[citation needed]
Black cougars have been reported in Kentucky and in the Carolinas. There have also been reports of glossy black cougars from Kansas, Texas and eastern Nebraska.[citation needed] These have come to be known as the "North American black panther". Sightings are currently attributed to errors in species identification by non-experts, and by the memetic exaggeration of size.
Black panthers in the American Southeast feature prominently in Choctaw folklore where, along with the owl, they are often thought to symbolize Death.
In his Histoire Naturelle (1749), Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, wrote of the "Black Cougar"[6]:


I'm not sure how much clearer we can get that black cougars do not exist. There is more scientific evidence that ghosts and Big Foot exist over such a thing as a black cougar.